Guernica -- Ginrin wa Utau（銀輪は唄う）

Wikimedia Commons

Jun Togawa（戸川純）is a singer whose works have popped up periodically on the blog over the years, beginning with KKP writer nikala's article on her "Yumemiru Yakusoku" (夢見る約束) and my own article on Togawa's "Zukei no Koi"（図形の恋）, both from the 1980s. My own impression of the singer was that she was an avant-garde post-punk/New Wave chanteuse who could be seen as a precursor to Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. 

Recently though, commenter YMOfan04 let me in on some information about Togawa. Before all of that post-punk and New Wave tour de force hit my eyes and ears for the first time, the Tokyo native had also been a member of the band Guernica which formed in 1981. Togawa formed it with keyboardist and composer Koji Ueno（上野耕路）and stage designer/costumer and lyricist Keiichi Ohta（太田螢一）. In this particular period of Japanese music culture when the Golden Age of Aidoru, 50s rock n' roll, technopop and City Pop were grabbing for their share of the popularity pie, Guernica was devoted in bringing the sounds of early 20th century kayo kyoku or ryukoka and military marches back to life. Incidentally, Guernica, which was also the title of Picasso's legendary anti-war painting from 1937, wasn't the first choice as a name for the trio; initially it had been Intonarumori which were musical instruments devised by an Italian futurist, but they changed their mind.

Guernica's first and only official single was "Ginrin wa Utau" (Singing of Silver Rings) which was released in December 1982. Backed by a full orchestra, Togawa was the vocalist here and the song sounded just like some of that beautiful music, as it was called a century ago, I heard on the old movies and television shows such as "The Little Rascals". Beautiful music were the melodies that were played at those fancy dance parties or soirees to contrast with the so-called "evil" music known as jazz back in the day. One can imagine Togawa being her melody moppet ancestor singing behind a huge NBC microphone on a New York soundstage, and I think that's where member Ohta brought some more of that yesteryear magic while dressing the others in the finery of the day. Quite the contrast with the type of music that Togawa would sing a few years later. Still, Guernica would release three albums up to the end of the 1980s.

Phnonpenh Model feat. Jun Togawa and Susumu Hirasawa -- MATANE（またね）

 

Phnonpenh Model

In 1994, former member Kotobuki Hikaru (key, prog) of P-MODEL, one of Japan's leading techno-pop bands, called on Taniguchi Maruta Masaaki (vo), who had been active in the Tokyo theater and live performance scene since the 1980s, and Lion Merry (key), who had played in the bands of Agata Morio and Togawa Jun. (Key), formed the group in response.

From the TuneCore profile

Just from reading the above and knowing what I know about P-Model, Jun Togawa（戸川純）and Masaaki Maruta Taniguchi（谷口マルタ正明）, I figured that Phnonpenh Model would be one heck of an avant-garde band. Of course, P-Model (including Susumu Hirasawa) and Togawa are represented here on KKP, but Taniguchi is someone that I've known from his appearances on Japanese television.

Phnonpenh Model is a band that I discovered only very recently because of a song that they released this year titled "MATANE" (See You Again), and it's quite the jangly number with some rock and techno in there. Plus, there is some of that exoticism that helps the band live up to its title (some of which is also the capital of Cambodia). Watching the music video is kinda like experiencing an absinthe-fueled fever dream after traveling to Southeast Asia. Drink in moderation, people!😵

YAPOOS -- Barbara Sexeroid（バーバラ・セクサロイド）

 

With all of the talk on the song-and-dance group Atarashii Gakko no Leaders (I'm wondering if they will be invited to the Kohaku Utagassen again in a couple of weeks), KKP friend and writer JTM and I were thinking that main vocalist Suzuka with her Wild Child ways would be the one to break out solo first. I can easily imagine her to be the Reiwa era version of Jun Togawa（戸川純）tackling the musical and grand theatrical in one fell swoop.

It's been a long while since I posted anything by Togawa incidentally, so I figure it is time to get this wild child of the 1980s back up. Up to now, I've covered some of her material under her own name but from 1987, she became identified with her new band YAPOOS, and in December of that year, they released their debut album "YAPOOS Keikaku"（ヤプーズ計画...The YAPOOS Plan）. And from that album, the first track was "Barbara Sexeroid", a jangly and jazzy technopop tune with hints of 80s New Wave and 60s secret agent soundtrack. The title character sounds almost like a heroic character with her own show as she boasts her android programming in multiple techniques and a broad way of pleasuring (and yes, I know I'm paraphrasing Lieutenant Commander Data whose TV show premiered only a few months before the release of this album).

Togawa came up with the lyrics while Yoichiro Yoshikawa（吉川洋一郎）came up with the melody. The website "Jun Togawa Forever" did come up with its own brief description of "Barbara Sexeroid", and apparently the song was created to convey the image of what YAPOOS was all about.

Jun Togawa -- Sayonara wo Oshiete（さよならをおしえて）

The world beyond and locally has changed drastically over the past few months and over the past 24 hours. COVID-19 is now the big expression everywhere, and folks are changing habits that they had taken for granted. We've stocked up on supplies to ride out the storm if the storm were to hit us but have not gone crazy in the panic-buying spree, and aside from the disappearance of sanitizer and toilet paper from the supermarket shelves, it's still relatively normal.

And I intend to keep our little world of kayo kyoku normal as long as I can help it while making sure friends and family are fine.

For the topic of this article, my first statement is that I can sympathize with those recent City Pop fans who've pointed out that they feel nostalgic when they hear their newest beloved songs even though they were never born in the 70s or 80s or were simply too young to remember anything of those decades. In my case, perhaps various examples of French pop from the 1960s would be my own version.

Serge Gainsbourg is one example of that. When I hear Francoise Hardy sing "Comment te dire adieu" (1968), which was written/arranged by Gainsbourg and Jack Gold with Arnold Goland behind the music, I get those images of black-and-white television sets and music show staging with performers in turtlenecks. Usually, my active memories when I was a toddler were of "Hockey Night In Canada", sitcom openings and "Star Trek". Perhaps my parents were seeing that music stuff and the images simply melded into me subliminally.

But getting back to "Comment te dire adieu" (It Hurts to Say Goodbye), it just strikes me as the epitome of cool French pop with Hardy's wistful vocals, the breathy horns and that particular tinkly keyboard. It starts out with that sultry piano like a man-eating woman slinking down the stairs before Hardy comes in singing while asking why the love has to be broken up?

Now, back to the fact that this is a blog on Japanese music...I actually found out about the original song through a cover by the very vivacious Jun Togawa（戸川純）titled "Sayonara wo Oshiete". The Japanese lyrics from a fansite were provided by Togawa herself and the twist here is that she sounds like someone who is being taken away from her love by force but still loudly proclaims her ardor (I got really taken aback initially when Togawa suddenly went into Miyuki Nakajima（中島みゆき）fighting mode midway through). By the same token, there is also that feeling that the lady may be somewhat obsessed with her target. It's the music and its catchy New Wave arrangement by Yoshihiro Kunimoto（国本佳宏）that got me hooked, though.

"Sayonara wo Oshiete" first appeared on Togawa's November 1985 3rd album "Suki, Suki, Daisuki"（好き好き大好き...Love You, Love You, Love You So Much）, but according to the uploader for the official music video on ancient VHS above, due to some deteriorated audio, the above audio with the video is the one from the following album "Tokyo no Yaban"（東京の野蛮...Tokyo Barbarism）, her first BEST compilation from 1987. Speaking of that video, Togawa was definitely going all out to entertain, and her deranged nurse persona had me wondering if it inspired Ringo Shiina's（椎名林檎）own more stoic nurse in her video for "Honno"（本能）.

If I'm not mistaken, this may be the single version that was released in February 1986 (if I'm wrong, please let me know). This time, it sounds like Togawa was going full Nakajima right from the get-go.

Hey, I had to include Jimmy Sommerville's duet version with June Miles-Kingston from 1989.

Jun Togawa -- Zukei no Koi （図形の恋）

Back in August, I wrote about the opening and ending themes for the anime "Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga aru"（この美術部には問題がある！）with the latter being Sumire Uesaka's（上坂すみれ）"Koi suru Zukei (cubic futurismo)"（恋する図形...A Figure in Love）, the quirky earworm hatched by TECHNOBOYS PULCRAFT GREEN FUND.

I mentioned there that Uesaka was so much of a fan of singer-actress Jun Togawa（戸川純）that she adopted a variation of one of Togawa's song titles from the 1980s, "Zukei no Koi"（Figure Love）to become the co-title for her own tune. Then and there, I decided that I would eventually do a write-up on that Togawa tune.

One of the other reasons that I wanted to cover "Zukei no Koi" was that I had read about Togawa through nikala's article of the singer's "Yumemiru Yakusoku" (夢見る約束) and actually knew about her from reputation. She has had quite the avant-garde New Wave approach to music and has shown a good deal of weirdness when she has made those occasional appearances on variety shows. Plus, from time to time, when I've entered Tower Records in Shibuya, I came across an album of hers on which there's a cover of her barely wearing any clothing in some hay-filled barn. Go fig.

Anyways, as for "Zukei no Koi", I can understand why Uesaka has been a fan of Togawa since on listening to this particular song, there is a certain vocal resemblance between the two. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Uesaka has already performed covers of the song in concert. It first came out in November 1985 as a track on Togawa's 3rd solo album "Suki Suki Dai Suki"（好き好き大好き...Love You, Love You, Really Love You）, and it's this cheery New Wave confession of love from the singer who is willing to bend herself into any sort of shape to satisfy the target of her adorations.

Thinking about some of the genre diversification in aidoru music that I've witnessed over the last few years, I think Togawa could have been called a New Wave aidoru with that chirpy voice of hers up against some of that technopop that had me thinking back to Blondie. Seeing her in performance above in the video, I think she would have been that introverted weird kid up in the back of the lecture hall not paying attention to the professor but doodling all sorts of creative stuff in her notebook. However, she didn't write or compose "Zukei no Koi". Instead that assignment went to Toshiro Izumi（泉水敏郎）.

Jun Togawa/Haruomi Hosono -- Yumemiru Yakusoku (夢見る約束)

I've been meaning to write about Jun Togawa (戸川純) for a while, but often dropped the idea since there is a lot written on her on the web in both Japanese and English thanks to the cult following she has acquired on both sides of the globe. But she is just so intriguing that I had to post something. Just listening to her songs from the 80's and early 90's you will get an idea that she's no ordinary singer. Yes, she was also one of my go-to artists when I was getting addicted to Japanese technopop and new wave in 2004, although I had no idea back then what she actually sang about (she is often associated with eroguro subculture). I was just so fascinated by how she could switch between parodic aidoru squeals and aggressive operatics within a single song. Plus, her PVs are a riot to watch. Some people compare her to Shiina Ringo, but I say her style belongs in a bizarre world of its own. And her life hasn't strayed too far from her ideas. I will bring you over to generasia to explain the rest.

Meanwhile, I chose to profile one of her more "normal" songs, "Yumemiru Yakusoku" (夢見る約束...Promised Dream), and by normal I mean there aren't any vocal acrobatics or disturbing lyrics she is usually known for. Instead, we have a haunting folksy melody accompanied by jittery techno synths as she sings about an innocent picnic with someone on a hillside. I could see Miharu Koshi (コシミハル) tackling this kind of song in the mid 80's, though Togawa's vocals give it a different vibe. Just my opinion, but there's something subtly sinister in her delivery. Perhaps the lyrics are ironic. The song appears on her album "Kyokuto Ian Shoka" (極東慰安唱歌...Far Eastern Comfort Songs) from March 1985, which she released under the collaborative project name Jun Togawa Unit (which also included Yoichiro Yoshikawa and Iio Yoshifumi). It peaked at 15th spot on Oricon weeklies.

Not surprisingly, "Yumemiru Yakusoku" is a cover of an obscure song by Haruomi Hosono (細野晴臣) (who has frequently collaborated with Miharu) which appeared as a bonus track on the limited edition of his 1982 album "Philharmony" (フィルハーモニー). His version is more chunky techno and while it's good technically, Togawa's is still the definitive one. You know, Hosono may be a musical genius but he's not exactly a singer per se...

Lastly, here's Togawa in action performing the song on TV. She definitely doesn't take herself seriously here. Just another day of media exposure.

Source: generasia